Pacific Fusion comes out of stealth mode with $900m funding announcement
By Lizzie Mushangwe
Pacific Fusion, founded in the summer of 2023, has raised a remarkable $900 million in Series A funding, setting a new standard in fusion energy investments. But the funding is not yet all “unlocked” so is the commitment meaningless?
Led by General Catalyst, this funding intends to accelerate Pacific Fusion’s pursuit of net energy gain through its innovative pulsed magnetic fusion technology.
© Pacific Fusion
What Have They Done?
Pacific Fusion has secured $900 million in upfront capital, structured in a way that releases funds as specific project milestones are achieved.
This approach stands out as traditional funding is often incremental, leading to frequent fundraising cycles that can distract from technical progress. By tying capital to concrete technical goals, General Catalyst’s structured financing method provides Pacific Fusion with both stability and accountability, enabling the team to stay focused on advancing their technology.
The company is working on pulsed magnetic fusion—a method involving intense electric pulses to compress deuterium-tritium fuel. In essence, the team is using powerful, rapid pulses to squash fuel to conditions necessary for fusion, aiming for a compact, efficient system capable of achieving a net energy output.
By leveraging the advanced Impedance-Matched Marx Generator (IMG) technology, initially demonstrated by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2022, Pacific Fusion states they can generate high-power pulses with remarkable speed and efficiency. This technology, designed to amplify electromagnetic power with an energy efficiency of up to 90%, is critical for meeting the rigorous demands of pulsed fusion.
Why Is It Impressive?
The $900 million funding is one of the largest series A fundraises in the fusion industry, reflecting strong investor confidence in its approach and team.
The company’s leadership is another standout feature. Headed by Eric Lander, a prominent geneticist and former leader of the Human Genome Project, the Pacific Fusion team is composed of experts from renowned institutions, including CTO Keith LeChien, former leader of pulsed magnetic fusion at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and President Will Regan, from Alphabet Inc.’s X division.
Why Is It Important?
Pacific Fusion’s funding model aligns capital directly with technological milestones, creating a clear path to achieving “net facility gain” (where energy output surpasses input). This structure minimises the need for constant fundraising, allowing the company to focus on key technical milestones.
Lead investor General Catalyst outlined their reasoning: “Capital is truly their lifeblood. For these businesses, frequent, piecemeal financings can misalign investors and management teams and expose companies to negative funding cycles where challenging and distracting fundraises compound, rather than improve capital constraints. In our experience, it is exceedingly difficult to escape these cycles, and unfortunately, we continue to see companies fail or experience painful structured financings as a result.”
By linking investment to these goals, Pacific Fusion can advance its ambitious roadmap without dedicating so much resource to fundraising.
Simon Woodruff, industry expert and director of Fusion Advisory Services, emphasised this shift, stating, “There always was milestone-based funding; only now the milestones are taking the fusion company all of the way to Q>1. The staging of investment this way is how the US DOE Milestone Program is working—clear targets are set, and when those are met, new tranches of funding are released.”
Woodruff added, “Previously, equity rounds were raised sequentially with different investors participating in subsequent rounds, but the difference now is that the milestones are being articulated by the companies and understood by a set of investors that want to stay the course.”
However, some investors are not convinced by this financing approach and say that as soon as a milestone is missed (which is almost inevitable when working on challenging science and engineering), that this will force revaluations and renegotiations. Therefore, say some, any money beyond what is unlocked is not actually guaranteed, so the $900m figure is merely for marketing more than anything else.
Nevertheless, financing is an important element of developing fusion technology and having committed investors and the space to aggressively pursue their technical milestones should give Pacific Fusion an advantage.
The confidence investors have shown in this approach signals their belief that Pacific Fusion’s pulsed magnetic fusion technology has a strong chance of reaching commercial viability in the coming decade. With the flexibility and focus that milestone-based funding provides, Pacific Fusion may be able to transition from laboratory demonstrations to a scalable fusion system faster than traditional fusion ventures.
What’s Next? – Key Milestones to Drive Fusion Forward
Highlighted in their founders’ letter, Pacific Fusion’s immediate objective is achieving “net facility gain,” where they generate more energy than the system consumes. To achieve this, they’re focusing on building a high-gain pulsed magnetic fusion driver while simultaneously engineering the necessary components for an affordable commercial fusion system. As each milestone is met, additional funding is unlocked, keeping Pacific Fusion on track to deliver on its ambitious vision.
Future milestones include the development of their small, mass-producible units—called “bricks”—that fit into standard shipping containers. This would enable Pacific Fusion to quickly deploy fusion plants at a global scale and a lower cost compared to conventional designs.